Officer threatens managing editor with a knife

New York, January 29, 2009--A Tunisian police officer
today threatened a journalist at knife point, according to local journalists,
prompting the Committee to Protect Journalists to call for his immediate
suspension.

The unidentified officer brandished a knife while
threatening Omar Mestiri, managing editor of the Web magazine Kalima, according to a Kalima journalist who spoke to CPJ.
Mestiri was threatened after he left his office building, which has been under siege
since Tuesday. Plainclothes police are surrounding the building, which is
residential and commercial. It houses Radio Kalima, a new station that was
launched on Monday, as well as the Kalima
Web site and two human rights groups.

"Tunisian
authorities must immediately end the intimidation of these journalists and
bring the siege of the media facilities to a close," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem,
CPJ's Middle ‎East and North Africa program coordinator. "The police officer who
threatened Omar Mestiri was acting under color of authority and therefore the
Tunisian government is implicated in this deplorable incident. The officer
involved must be identified and suspended pending a complete and thorough
investigation."

On Tuesday, radio journalist Dhafer Otay, who also lives in
the building, was
detained and questioned for four hours before being released. He was not
charged but was told not to return to the building.

A phone call to Tunisia's
embassy in Washington
for comment today was not immediately returned.